Fiesta de Los Ninos Drone Event
On April 23, 2023, Fiesta de Los Ninos held its annual large STEM event focused on students and their families at Port San Antonio. The Joint IEEE Lone Star Section AESS/SMC/SYCS Chapter and RAS Chapter organized a Drone Demo for the event. There was a steady stream of visitors with lots of interest throughout the day. Around 75 to 100 of the students tried their hand at flying a drone through the obstacle course and several hundred parents and spectators watched.
This event was possible because of the University of the Incarnate Word's Jovany Avila, local IEEE Robotic Automation Society chair support from Ernest Franke (section RAS chair) and John Lawless (UTSA RAS student branch chair) organizing for volunteering, and Nicole Webb from St. Mary's University for supplying the drones and tablets. By working in a coordinated effort, the section was able to provide a larger scale event than it would have with just the individual societies.
UTSA Technology Symposium 2023 Special Recognition
On April 27, 2023, the Chapter Chair for the IEEE Lone Star Section Joint AESS/SMC/SYSC recognized students for performing work in the field of interest of IEEE AESS during The University of Texas at San Antonio's Tech Symposium. This year Walt Downing (IEEE Systems Council President) and Garrett Hall (Joint LSS AESS/SMC/SYSC Chair) presented Team Taarakian with the "UTSA Technology Symposium 2023 Special Recognition" award for their project "Boresight-to-Boresight Antenna Point System". The project consisted of a 2-axis gimbal-mounted receiver capable of automatically finding the best direction and angle to point in to optimize the received signal from a distant antenna.
The team consisted of Colton Boston, Steven Luis, Ethan Nguy, Alex Smith, and Elizabeth White. Their NASA sponsor from Glenn Research Center was Ryan Toonen. These special recognition awards provide students with motivation to continue on a path relevant to technologies associated with AESS.
AESS Short Course on Cognitive Electronic Warfare
On April 27 & 28, 2023, the IEEE Lone Star Section Joint AESS/SMC/SYSC hosted Dr. Karen Haigh for an AESS Short Course on Cognitive Electronic Warfare. The two-day short course covered the basics of AI and provided applications for it in the EW space. This was a great chance for the class of seven to engage in open discussions with Dr. Haigh. This conversational classroom model made it easier to exchange ideas and learn the material. Proceeds from the short course will go towards the purchase of more drones for future drone demonstrations and challenges.
As an added bonus, Anthony Wagner gave a tour of the autonomous vehicles lab at Southwest Research Institute where the group learned more about off-road vehicle research and the autonomous shuttle being developed.
Cognitive EW - Assuring Mission Success
On May 1, 2023, Dr. Karen Haigh gave an excellent IEEE AESS Distinguished Lecturer talk on Cognitive EW - Assuring Mission Success at UTSA’s National Security Collaboration Center. Rhode & Schwartz sponsored the event and provided a demo of their IRAPS product.
This unified effort between the IEEE Lone Star Section Joint AESS/SMC/SYSC Chapter and AOC Billy Mitchell Chapter helped educate the local community on methods to develop trustable AI systems.
